CNTEMAD, 15 Years of Distance Learning in Madagascar

The National Distance Learning Center of Madagascar (CNTEMAD) celebrated yesterday the opening ceremony of its 15th anniversary. Officially set up in 1992 after a decree from the Ministry of Education at the time. Up until then, more than 80,000 students have enrolled in different fields like Laws, Management, Computer Sciences at the 27 centers spreaded all over the Island.

Studying and working at the same time

Many choose distance learning because it allows them to focus upon different things at the same time. There are students who are taking 3 different fields in the same year, one at a private university, the second at Ankatso (public university) and the last one at CNTEMAD. Some find in distance learning an occasion to continue their studies without losing their jobs. Even though nowadays, we have more and more enrolled young students, I noticed that there are still a lot of workers opting for it because it fits their situation and needs.

Is there any better way to give yourself an opportunity to financially support your studies or to get back to studies that you had to drop because you had to earn money. So many students at the university stop at their second year once they graduate. They can already find a job with the diploma they have at this level, a job that most of the time has no career plan and doesn’t need many requirements but it’s just to help parents meet the two ends or to be financially independent. Sometimes I pass by the CNTEMAD’s HQ and see ladies, most of them mothers, queuing up among the teens that have just graduated from highschools. That shows studies have neither ends nor limits and distance learning helps confort the idea.